Demon Deadlines
by weirdlaugh
Summary: Alec and Magnus are perfectly happy - apart from the fact Alec has only six months to live. After saving Magnus' life by dealing with a so-called 'demon', Alec is now in a desperate race against time, and the angels aren't making things easier... Malec.
1. Demons keep their promises

**Hi guys, so this is my first fanfic, so constructive criticism would be great. I think I'll just let you guys get on with reading this, because if I keep going I'm going to keep coming up with lame excuses for my possibly horrible writing. Anyway… so yeah I just wrote this because I felt like it so hardly any preparation has gone into this… enjoy!**

**If you got an alert saying I replaced the chapter or whatever, sorry, I didn't, I just un-newbified it with bolding, dividing etc. I'm doing that with all the other chapters too because they were pissing people and me off. Enjoy... again? lol  
**

**Disclaimer: The awesome world of TMI belongs to the one and only Cassandra Clare.**

As the warlock lay dying on the concrete, the demon crouched down next to the dark-haired boy still spitting blood onto the grass. The demon hooked a curved claw under the boy's chin, lifting his head up. The sky was pitch black, the stars gone. Behind them, the city lights were faded, the sound of traffic rushing past muted by the darkness, oblivious.

"How're you feeling, Alec?" the demon said. The boy blanched at the demon's voice, or possibly his odour. Or both. But he didn't reply.

"How'd you like to save that _friend_ of yours, eh? How about that? You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Alec gave a barely imperceptible nod, unable to speak. The demon considered. Judging by the pulses coming from this boy' soul, he didn't really seem to be heading towards the 100th birthday balloon. He'd be doing Alec a favour, considering how he was going to die originally. And that would still leave a beautifully full soul afterwards.

"Okay," the demon said. "How about twenty-five years off your life, then? Not so much, is it? You'll still have enough time to spend with your beloved little warlock."

Alec made to say something, but the claw beneath his chin prevented him from doing anything but spit blood.

"You're not really in a position to negotiate, Alec," the demon said. "Oh yeah, and I nearly forgot. I deal in souls, Alec, souls. So here's the full package. No fine print here. You give me twenty-five years now, and I'll fix up that warlock of yours. But when the time comes…" the demon leaned in close to the boy's ear. "I want your soul as well."

The boys' eyes widened. The demon turned Alec's head with his claw to look at the broken body of Magnus.

"Think, boy," the demon said. "We're not talking about any old warlock. We're talking about _The_ High Warlock of Brooklyn, for Satan's sake. So it's a fair deal. If you agree, he'll get more that just your sacrificed twenty-five years. He'll live on like this has never happened. You will still have awhile."

Alec was now really struggling to say something. The demon pulled him roughly upright. Shadowhunters these days, always wanting to talk.

"What?" the demon asked, rolling his red eyes.

"How… how long?" rasped the boy. The demon looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

"You really want to know when you die?"

Alec nodded.

"Silly child." The demon paused. It wouldn't really hurt to tell him. And emotions always made the soul more… flavoured. "Fine." And he told him. The boy closed his eyes.

"So…?" the demon prompted. He was getting bored of this whole charade.

Alec opened his eyes. Two pools of blue.

"I don't trust you."

The demon sighed.

"They never do. Okay, how about this. I'll heal the stupid warlock, and if you change your mind, I'll let him die again. If you don't, I'll twenty-five years off you and be gone. Until the time comes, of course."

Alec took his time, thinking. If he could think straight, that was. There had to be a lot of pain involved at the moment, considering how much he'd been thrown around that night. Finally

"Okay." He said.

A howl of wind tore through the trees, picking the demon up. It settled around Magnus' body, the demon crouching over him, a hellish red light enveloping the warlock. Alec wanted to fling himself over there, but he could barely breathe. Never had he felt so useless. The demon looked up.

"There. It's done." He looked down at the warlock and prodded him with a claw. "Hey you. Say something."

Magnus stirred with a groan, a hand clutching his head. The demon smiled at Alec.

"There. What did I tell you? I do a good job every time. So what's it to be, Alec? Make up your mind." But Alec already had. And he didn't change his mind.

The demon laughed at his answer.

"The deal is sealed, as they say. Goodbye for now, Alexander. Have fun." The demon rose up, the wind gathering again. "The countdown has begun."

And as the wind surged towards him, Alec felt years of his life being sucked out of him, felt the demon laughing, and laughing, and, distantly, heard something scream his name.

* * *

But that was several years ago now. And Alec's time was trickling away.

**So how was that? If it totally sucked… well, I would appreciate if you told me why so that I can improve. If you liked it… well…**

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Demons remind you

**YES! People like it! I am insanely and ridiculously happy, but remember your first time getting a review/subscription? Yeah. Anyway, reviews are golden (hint hint XD). Well, here's the second not-thought-out-at-all chapter.**

"Darling, what's wrong?"

Magnus came over and sat down next to Alec, giving him a quick massage on the shoulders. He could feel the tension there, like piano wires.

"It's nothing." Alec said, standing up. "I'd better get –"

"You are not going anywhere until you tell me what's got your Shadowhunter trousers in a twist." Magnus said, pulling him back down. Alec turned to look at him. Magnus was far from the dying, bloodied form Alec had been remembering. His trousers seemed to shimmer in the light, while his white shirt had a button undone, revealing a silver necklace Alec had given him last year. His black hair was carefully spiked, the ends tipped with silver glitter – the same glitter that coated his nails and his eyelids. It was hard to lie to him.

"It's nothing," he said, looking at a spot just above Magnus' raised eyebrow. "I don't know… just worried about the party, I guess. I mean, what if Simon gets turned into a rat again?"

It worked. Well, at least Magnus let it pass.

"Aw." Magnus said. "You are _so _sweet. But don't worry," he said, standing up to look in the mirror again. "No dodgy drinks at this party. Actually, I better go check that. Chairman Meow is getting awfully naughty these days."

He left the bedroom, leaving Alec looking after him, counting down the times he would be able to see Magnus walking out that door. Then he shook himself. He was about to go to a _party._ He was going to _enjoy_ himself. He had to.

* * *

"Alec!" Isabelle sashayed into the apartment, dress floating around her, shoes sparkling. She enveloped him in a perfumed hug. "How have you been? Magnus keeping you well, I hope."

"Of course I have," Magnus said, appearing next to them. "You look wonderful, Isabelle, though I'm shocked you doubt my Alec-cuddling abilities."

Alec flamed red, but was saved by the arrival of the rest of the guest list: Maryse and Robert, Jace and Clary, Simon, Jocelyn…

Then Luke stepped through the door, bringing the rest of the pack with him.

"You invited _all_ of them?" Alec said out of the side of his mouth. "What about Simon?"

"Oh, he'll cope." Magnus said. "Besides, this is our party, remember? We can invite whoever we like."

* * *

"You're drinking a little heavily, aren't you?"

Two Jaces slid onto a chair next to Alec, signalling for two drinks from the two bartenders and downing it in one, the filthy hypocrites.

"Not really." Alec said. "Just enjoying myself. How about you? How's the New Year's going for you? Great I bet, huh? Spending it with Clary I suppose. That'll be sweet…"

His hand searched the table for his glass.

"I mean, some people get all the luck. Having the rest of their lives in front of them. Not knowing when they're going. Y'know what I mean? Y'know?"

"Alec." Both Jaces said, looking at him. "You're drunk."

Alec found the glass and tipped the liquid down his throat.

"Haha, as if I care. As if I care about anything. Care. Who cares. I don't care. You don't care."

The Jaces was about to say something when the lights suddenly cut out.

Everything went pitch black. The music stopped. Everyone stopped moving. Everybody was silent. Then

"Magnus?" Jace asked, a witchlight flaring in his hand. A second later, the witchlight went out. "What the –"

Something laughed.

The sounds of blades being unsheathed sounded in the darkness. Everyone waited. Tense.

Then, as suddenly as it had happened before, the lights came back on. Everyone blinked. Everything was the same as before the sudden blackout. Luke let out a shaky laugh.

"That was not funny, Magnus." He said, sliding his dagger back into its hidden sheath. "I actually thought – Magnus? Where's Magnus?"

"Probably making out with Alec somewhere." Isabelle said. "Alec?"

They were both gone.

* * *

Alec raised his head. The world spun. But he recognized where he was.

"I've missed you," said the demon, right next to him.

**How was that? Just remember this was written in like 10 minutes with no editing whatsoever. Anyways PLEASE review (they make my day). I know this Chapter was kinda slow and all but yea. Better stuff will be coming (hopefully). Thanks for reading!**


	3. Demons ruin your secrets

**Whoop whoop! Reviews! Thanks guys. Keep them coming… Anyway here's the next bit. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own TMI. Cassandra Clare does, the lucky little…**

Alec was suddenly extremely sober. He whipped around, drawing his dagger with a sharp, metallic hiss, eyes straining in the darkness, leaves skittering along the ground around his feet. The demon laughed. On his other side.

"Seriously." The demon said, walking out in front of him. As he passed under the lamppost, the light fizzled out. The only things Alec could see now were two glowing red eyes. "If someone as powerful as the warlock over there can't even stop me, what makes you think you can, Shadowhunter?"

Magnus was standing just behind the demon, a tall shadow in front of the row of pin oaks. And he wasn't doing anything, just staring. Or maybe he couldn't do anything. Things weren't looking good.

"What do you want?" Alec said, dagger still poised. "It's not time yet." Wildly, he wondered if he had miscalculated the date. Impossible. You don't miscalculate your own death date. The demon smiled.

"Of course not. I'm just here to give you a little reminder. It's what I do. Here, catch." The demon threw something small at him. Reflexively, Alec caught it. It burnt the palm of his hand, but he didn't drop it. He held the demon's gaze, blue eyes on red.

"Well?" The demon said. "Aren't you going to –"

Alec dived out of the way just as Magnus launched himself at the demon's back, sinking his blade deep into the demon's left side. The demon roared, shaking the trees, flames roiling in its mouth. It shook itself, black blood splattering the cement path, plucking Magnus off its back and flicking him like a bug into the nearest tree. Magnus crashed into a top branch and fell, unable to stop himself, to the ground, head cracking against a gnarled root. The demon turned just as Alec's arm was coming down. It twisted itself out of the way and raked its claws at Alec's face - he ducked and tackled the demon, both of them landing heavily onto the grass. Alec's breath whooshed out of him, but the demon was fine. It flipped over, crushing him, then leapt up, planting a large and scaly foot on his chest. Alec's dagger clattered to the ground, a strip of metal on the pathway, out of reach.

"We have a deal, Alec." The demon said, pushing down. Alec bit down hard on his lower lip, tasting blood as a rib cracked, forcing himself not to make a sound. "You have to keep it." Another rib shattered. Alec felt like he was screaming through his eyes. "Oh yeah - you might want to take note of this…" The demon leaned down to show Alec a… completely unmarked, unharmed chest. From what Alec could see in the dark and through his haze of pain, the demon's chest was armoured and plated, but things seemed to be swirling behind it, _inside_ the demon. The demon saw him watching, and tapped his chest. "You'll be joining them, before long. Goodbye, Alec. See you soon." Before Alec could blink, a violent gust of wind tore through the air, picking Magnus up, the demon disappearing behind the rage of dust and leaves. Alec flung himself towards his dagger –

And landed back onto his bar stool in Magnus' apartment, tumbling off, clutching his chest, the wooden floorboards pitching towards him, Jace flinging out an arm to catch him – exactly on points where his ribs had broken – Alec cried out, a pitiful sound. He clamped his mouth shut as Jace swore and lowered him to the ground, as faces blocked the light, as his palm continued to burn. He closed his hand tightly around the object, only wanting to see one person –

"Coming through, coming through. Honestly, no one cares about _me, _do they?" Magnus pushed his way through the crowd, kneeling next to him. He had twigs and leaves sticking out of his hair, which was ruined, and a flowering bruise decorating his left cheekbone. At least he could still walk. "What is it, Alec?" Magnus said, quietly. Alec forced out the word 'ribs' before collapsing back onto the floor, Isabelle cradling his head. Magnus began unbuttoning his shirt to look at the damage. In normal circumstances, Alec would have been mortified, especially with Jace and his family around him, but this wasn't a normal circumstance. He heard several gasps as his ribs came into view, and one of the werewolves muttered "Nasty…". Magnus placed his hands on Alec's seventh and tenth ribs, blue sparks dancing from his fingers and onto Alec's chest, sinking into the skin. Alec drew in a deep breath and relaxed. Magnus pulled back his hands. Silence. Then

"What the _hell _just happened?" Jace said.

"Is he going to be alright?" Maryse asked.

"Where did you go?" Isabelle demanded, dropping her brother's head and standing up. Magnus stood up too, clapping his hands.

"Okay guys, parties over, move it out," he said, his front door swinging open, normal lights flaring on, the piano disappearing and the bar clearing up all by itself. The werewolves, used to Magnus' abrupt party endings, began to file out, grumbling. No one else moved. Questions filled the air above Alec's head, spinning round and round the confined space until his head threatened to split.

"Guys –" he said finally, cutting everyone off. "Please. Just go. I'll explain everything… later."

There seemed to be something in his voice that made everyone get up and go. Jace seemed to want to stay on the couch and declare he was staying, and so did Isabelle, but Clary pulled them both away, and Alec was, for once, grateful to her. The door closed with a sharp _snap._

Magnus turned around.

"Alec," he said, his voice trembling, "_What have you done?"_

**Hm… I'm not very satisfied with this chapter, but since I'm going to be away for the next two days I decided to be nice and not leave you guys with a cliffhanger. So feel free to critique!**

**Thanks for reading! Luv yaz.**


	4. Demons time you

**Hey I'm back! Sorry for the wait and thanks for all the reviews/subscriptions/favourites etc. But they're like money – you can never have enough… LOL. Anyway, moving on...**

Alec stopped speaking, and finally looked up at Magnus. What did he expect him to do?

What he didn't expect was for Magnus to stride towards him and slap him so hard across the face his neck cracked. His vision shook and his teeth felt like they were floating. A ringing sound resounded in his head and he shook it, blinking, looking up at the warlock.

"…ow." He said, having nothing better to say. Magnus was staring at the opposite wall, looking like he wanted to punch that as well. His face was ashen but his feline eyes were blazing, and fire was dancing from his fingertips – literally. He was biting his lower lip to the point of splitting.

"Magnus…" Alec said, very carefully. Magnus turned his gaze onto him and Alec realised it wasn't anger in his eyes, but tears.

"You stupid, stupid Nephilim." Magnus said, in a low voice. "How could you?" He closed his eyes and the tears dropped, like the minutes of Alec's numbered days.

"You would have died." Alec said.

"Who cares?" Magnus shouted, exploding. "Alec, I'm seven hundred years old! Dying now would have been nothing, but now you – " He choked on his words. Turning away, he strode around the apartment, vanishing glasses into thin air as he passed them.

They both knew that one of them would've had to make the sacrifice, and Alec had taken it.

"So how're you going to get out of this one?" Magnus asked, his words tumbling over each other. "That demon, I couldn't… it stopped me. It was like all my magic had been drained away. I've never even heard of a demon that could do that." He stopped, his back to Alec, hands resting on the bar table. His shoulders were shaking. There was a long, painful pause as Magnus tried to steady his voice. He failed.

"I don't know how to save you, Alec."

* * *

_Close your eyes  
I'll stay beside you  
I'm still here  
I won't let them find you  
I'll be laying right here by your side  
Even though my heart is breaking  
Seeing you like this I'll face it  
Don't be afraid  
You're not alone…_

Still here, Kristen Valen

* * *

He was going to lose him. He was going to lose him. He was going to lose him.

_No. _

Magnus lay perfectly still on his side of the bed, willing himself not to make a sound. He could tell Alec wasn't asleep either, but both of them kept the façade going. It was easier than trying to sort things out. How could they?

The demon had given Alec a piece of parchment, tightly scrolled. It had numbers on it. And the ink changed and flowed across the page, second for second, minute for minute, hour for hour. The parchment had also left a Black Mark in the centre of Alec's palm.

Magnus knew he would go to hell for Alec. But then Alec's pact with the demon would mean nothing if he did actually go there, because the demon would probably take both their souls anyway. Souls. Did he have one? Did half-demons have souls? What happened to the souls? Magnus remembered the crushing presence of the demon, the magic that refused to come to him. He felt as helpless now as he did then, like a child who'd been forced into the real world. A world that was rapidly crumbling before his eyes.

Alec felt the palm of his hand. He felt nothing there, and he couldn't see it in the dark, but he knew it was there.

He knew he would have to tell his parents. He imagined what it would be like. _So, you've lost one son and now I'm just going to get my soul eaten by a demon even the High Warlock of Brooklyn can't control. See you!_

His head was strangely clear. Maybe this was how it felt like when you knew you were going to die. It scared him more than the demon, this feeling of acceptance. But then Magnus shifted beside him, and hell crashed back down on his head. Alec had had demon poison in him before, had had the acid pain of battle, but nothing, nothing equalled the pain he now held in his chest. He curled up tight, trying to escape the pain.

But there was nowhere to hide.

**Yes, I know, Major Angst. Nothing really happened and that was my first (crappy) attempt at writing a real angsty bit so yea. Hope it wasn't too bad! Tell me what you thought.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	5. Demons aren't demons

**Hey again, sorry for all the slow updates but I've been really busy lately. It's kind of depressing because the only thing I can seriously think of at the moment for Magnus and Alec is hardcore angst… so if you guys have any awesome ideas or plot-bunnies eating away at you please PM me or something. But I shall carry on! (Heroic music here!). Also, thanks for all the great feedback – keep them coming! Love you all.**

**Disclaimer: All belongs to Cassandra Clare (who I heard reading the first chapter of CoFA on YouTube! Awesome!)**

"Alec!"

Something hard hit him on the head, startling him out of his staring match with the opposite armchair. He looked up to see Jace glaring at him, gold eyes burning.

"What?"

Jace looked like he wanted to throttle him.

"Are you even thinking about this… this… situation?" He said, words not as fluent as usual

"I've been thinking about it for the last seven years," Alec said, lightly. Jace groaned and started pacing around the library again. Alec picked up the book Jace had thrown at him. He didn't need to look at the title to know what it was about. Another useless six hundred pages about demons, and not one mention of the one Alec was so friendly with.

"Where's Clary?" Alec said, just to break the silence. It was a bad move.

"With Izzy, where else? You really drove her over the edge with this one, Alec." Jace turned to face him now. "What were you – "

" – thinking?" Alec said, finishing for him. "I wasn't thinking anything, Jace. Maybe just the fact that Magnus was going to die? You would have done the same for Clary and you know it."

Jace stopped.

"You're right." He said.

"I know I am." Alec said. Jace glanced at him.

"Is this death thing giving you a smart attitude or what?"

They both laughed. It must've been the first happy sound in the library for days.

Magnus came through the door, balancing a tray of coffees in the air before him.

"What did I miss?" He asked, sitting down next to Alec and kissing him on the cheek. At least he was acting normally. If Alec had really looked at him, he would have seen exactly how pale Magnus' face was, how normal his hair looked, how his eyes darted around the room, unsettled.

"Nothing." Jace said. "Just reading up on demons. There's no mention of –"

"That's because it's not a demon." Magnus said, very quietly.

" – it's like it's never existed. This demon –" Jace continued, not hearing Magnus.

"It's not a demon." Magnus repeated, a little louder this time.

"I don't even – what?" Jace stopped dead. "What do you mean it's not a demon? Of course it is. What else could it be?"

"It's not a demon." Magnus said again, and his hands shook as he reached for his coffee. "It's an angel."

**SO, what did you think? *Chews nails anxiously* I just wanted to get something out there so here it is! Hope you enjoyed it, please please please review. Thanks to all of you who have bothered to review at all it so greatly appreciated. I would send you all gifts, but I'm too poor to pay for courier services all the way to from NZ. So please accept this virtual hug of happiness. *hug!***

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Angels drop in

**Omg, your reviews are my inspiration! They brighten up a totally crap day! And everything is guessing what my plotline is… XD Haha, but seriously. I found out the 'demon' was an angel about the same time you guys did, because this story has had no planning whatsoever. It's like it has a mind of its own, so yea. Read on!**

The whole world stood still.

But then Alec took in a breath, and everything crashed into fast-forward.

"_What?_" Jace had got there first, staring at Magnus like he'd lost it. Not saying Magnus had it all together in the first place, but this – "You're saying this demon is actually an angel?"

The coffee seemed to have calmed Magnus down a little. At least his hands had stopped shaking. Alec saw that he had no nail polish on. Neither did he have makeup. Something he only saw in the morning. Until now.

"You should see your face." Magnus said to Jace, whose jaw was near the floor. Jace shut his mouth, then opened it again.

"So you're saying we're dealing with a fully-fledged angel?" he said, trying to get Magnus to give him a straight answer.

"Blondie, have you heard of the angel of death?" Magnus asked.

"Yeah…" Jace said, letting the comment slip.

"Well, now think of a very, very bad angel of death that got kicked out of heaven because he fell in love with a mortal gal and saved her soul because she wanted to live awhile longer."

"Oh." Jace said. It had to be the shortest sentence he'd ever said.

"Oh indeed." Magnus looked across at Alec. "So?"

"So what?" Alec said, voice flat.

"So, what do you think?"

"Think about what?"

Magnus looked at Jace. Jace shrugged and reached for a coffee. The Starbucks sign on the cup was oddly comforting. Something nice and normal. What a change. Magnus reached out for Alec's shoulder, but Alec stood up abruptly and walked to the window, pressing his cheek against the cool glass. It was gray outside, clouds threatening to burst. Like his mood. A fallen angel. He'd sold his soul to a fallen angel of death? How bad could this get?

Then Alec found out exactly how bad things could get. A pity his back was turned at the time.

* * *

"What is up with him?" Magnus said quietly to Jace.

"What do you think?" Jace looked over at Alec silhouetted against the window. "He just found out – " Suddenly Jace's eyes widened as Alec turned around, but his gaze was past Alec's shoulder, out the window. "Alec!"

Alec whipped round just as the entire window shattered, glass flying like spears through the air, and the dark shape Jace had seen falling from the sky crashed into the library.

It began to rain. Glass pieces shivered on the carpet. Alec raised his head from where he'd thrown himself out of the way. The dark shape was a person, its back strangely humped and distorted, its arm twisted at a strange angle. Very slowly, the intruder rolled over onto his front, and stretched out two very large, very black, and very bloodied wings.

**Okay… so I have no idea what's going on at this point, but I hope you like this chapter more than I did, because… well, I'm never really satisfied with what I write anyway. Reviews, people? XD. Someone also pointed out to me how short my chapters were, and I'm sorry if that's annoying you guys. I'll trying harder, but I'm really pressed for time. Yea, I know, lame excuse. Anyway.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	7. Angels have iPhones

**Haha, realised story needs a shove along. Thanks to all readers/reviewers/subscribers/favouriters (is that a word?) etcetcetc. Muchmuchmuch appreciated. Carry on!**

**Disclaimer: I keep on forgetting to put these in. All belongs to CC.**

The angel groaned, painfully closing up its wings and crawling to its hands and knees. Alec stood, poised at the ready, aware of Magnus and Jace behind the couch, still and wary. The angel spat blood on the carpet, then staggered to its feet, its piercing gaze focusing on Alec. It was male, with jet black hair and black eyes, face angular, sharp and pinched, covered with bruises.

"Heavens..." The angel said, then, suddenly, its knees gave way and it collapsed onto the carpet again.

Alec ran towards it. This was definitely not the demon/angel jerk that their wholes lives were revolving around at the moment. Jace leapt over the couch, Magnus following, and together they carried the unconscious angel onto the couch. Everyone took in a breath to say something just as the door sprang open and Isabelle jumped into the room, whip at the ready, dark hair whipping back in the sudden gust of wind from the broken window.

"What is going on?" She said, glaring at them, the angel hidden from view behind the couch's back.

"Uh…" Alec took a moment to look at Izzy. It was the first time he'd seen her in four days. After he'd 'fessed up, so to say. She was in the same clothes as four days ago, the same makeup, smudged all over her face, hair looking filthy. All the unusual.

"Uh what?" Isabelle said, striding over to the couch. "Who's – ALEC!" her scream was more than enough to rouse the angel. It clutched its head and promptly fell off the couch, wings tangled beneath him, stray feathers sticking out everywhere.

"Not a very coordinated angel is he?" Jace muttered out of the side of his mouth.

"Shut up." The angel said, getting up and reaching for Alec's untouched coffee that was still on the table. "Thank God for Starbucks." It said, sounding serious.

"Amen?" Jace said, not hiding his disbelief any longer. "Would you mind telling us exactly who you are and why you're here? Before we kick you out?"

"_Jace."_ Alec hissed at him. Somehow, he thought angels deserved more respect. Then again, he though angels appeared in bright halos of light with golden hair and dove-white wings. Obviously wrong.

"Hey – you're the Herondale kid!" said the angel, looking up at Jace.

"No shit, Sherlock." Jace said. "Nice to know I'm famous Up There. Maybe you could get me a VIP pass?"

The angel frowned, and took an iPhone from a pocket of its jacket. So okay, this angel wasn't wearing a humble robe. Instead, it was wearing track pants, t-shirt and a water/snow/wind-proof looking jacket with lots of pockets. And yes, it had an iPhone. No big deal.

"Herondale, Herondale…" The angel scrolled down with a finger. "Hmm. Let's see, here he is-"

"Wait a minute." Alec said, interrupting Jace's 'getting-to-know-the-guest-' time. "You're an angel of what, exactly?" As if he couldn't guess.

"What do you think?" Isabelle said. She was standing behind the couch, looking over the angel's shoulder at his iPhone. "He's the Angel of _Death_."

"Took you long enough." The angel said, ruffling its wing feathers. He took a breath, letting it out slowly.

The effect was much more angel-like.

A soft glow seemed to settle of him, from head to toe. All the bruises, cuts and dried blood melted away to nothingness, and his clothes went from torn to brand-new. Behind them, all the glass shards littering the floor picked themselves up and replaced themselves into the window frame, sealing over like nothing had ever happened. The angel's shoe laces tied themselves up. A watch materialised onto his wrist. He looked at it thoughtfully. "He left my watch alone." He fiddled with it for a moment. "That's one thing to be thankful for."

"He?" Alec said, blood running cold. "Who's 'he'?"

"Who do you think?" The angel finished his coffee. It refilled immediately. "My darling predecessor. Fallen Angel of Death. Didn't deign to do his job properly and is now running all over the place blackmailing souls left right and centre. Ruining my system, I tell you. No consideration whatsoever. So it falls to me go chasing after him because He didn't exterminate him. I told him he had to, but would he listen? _No_, of course not."

Outside, the sky rumbled ominously. The angel looked guilty. "Whoops. I'm not being disrespectful, but it would have been a lot easier…"

A flash of lightening forked across the dark expanse of cloud.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." The angel bit his lower lip in worry.

"Okay…" Alec said. Surprisingly enough, there was nothing going on in his brain like 'Oh my God it's an angel', or 'Hey guys, the Angel of Death has come down to Earth and he's wearing track pants!' Nothing. Except…

"So if you're here to kill him, does that mean my deal is terminated?" Alec said, trying to keep a lid on the hope building in his chest.

"Ah." The angel said, not meeting his eyes. "Let's eat first, shall we?"

* * *

Magnus pulled Alec back into the corridor as he made to go to the kitchen. They'd discovered that yes, the Angel of Death, or, as he liked it, Azrael, did like Chinese take away, and yes, he ate in kitchens, and yes, he was rather hungry.

"He stopped my magic." Magnus said, quietly. "Just like Abaddon." Yep, the fallen Angel of Death's name was Abaddon, apparently. Just like the Greater Demon Jace, Clary, Isabelle, Simon and Alec had fought before the Great War. When Alec had nearly died. The name brought back great memories. Ha ha.

Alec looked hard at Magnus. Properly. His eyes showed seven, maybe eight hundred years worth of the pain. Otherwise he looked twenty-something. But a normal twenty-something. Alec found that he desperately missed the Magnus that would come waltzing into their apartment with his rainbow coloured hair gelled to sharp points, clothed in leopard-print trousers and diamond-studded muscle top, sweep Alec off his feet and throw him on the bed. Or the couch. Whichever one was closer.

"You're blushing." Magnus said.

"Am not," Alec said, blushing. Magnus grinned, just like he used to.

"I have that affect on people." He said. "Now come on. We've got an Angel to entertain."

Azrael was deep in conversation with Isabelle, who'd cleaned herself up as they'd waited for the food. Alec hoped Isabelle was not going to make the angel sin or anything by being her normal seductive self, because then they'd have two fallen angels instead of just one.

Jace was eating mu shu pork, eyes focused on his phone.

"Clary's coming over." He said without looking up. "She's going to get a shock when she sees you, Azrael."

Azrael looked at him. "Why?"

"Well, the last angel she saw was the Angel Raziel." Jace said. "And he appeared a whole lot differently. I just missed him though, being dead at the time."

Azrael huffed. "Oh yeah. You, dead. That messed up the system too. It said Jace Herondale, by Lake Lyn, but then his high and mighty Raziel had to come and get you back. You'd think he'd have some consideration for the rest of us, wouldn't you, trying to keep things running smoothly."

"Well, thanks for giving me back." Jace said. "Or else I would still be dead."

Azrael pouted. "Living is overrated."

"So are angels." Jace said.

"Hey!"

"It's true."

"Don't be mean."

Just then the elevator bell rang. Clary. That was quick.

"I'll get it," Jace said, hopping off his stool.

"Oo, and I'll go and give her a surprise. Be all like, yeah, I'm not the angel. The angel's back in the kitchen, eating caviar. Wanna join?"

Jace rolled his eyes but let Azrael follow him.

A tense silence followed their footsteps, and then the clatter of the elevator. Alec didn't dare look at Isabelle. Despite her socialising with the angel, Alec doubted she'd in any way forgiven him for what he'd done.

"Izzy…?" He started, glancing at Magnus for any last minute support. The warlock was studying his reflection in the back of a spoon. Never mind then.

"Azrael says we can relax for a bit as we're on hallowed ground and he thinks he lost Abaddon somewhere in Massachusetts." Isabelle began immediately, turning away. "Clary was in Manhattan anyway with Simon, that's why she's here so fast." She banged pots and pans together by the sink. "Azrael talk a lot, doesn't he –"

"Isabelle!" Magnus cut in suddenly. Isabelle looked at him, startled out of her stream of words. "Will you please just be quite for one second and let your brother get a word in? He wants to talk to you!" Hm. Helpful.

"But I don't want to talk to _him_!"Isabelle shot back, tears forming rapidly in her eyes.

"Isabelle. You're being childish – "

"I am _not_ being childish!" Isabelle nearly screamed, fists forming at her sides. "And since when have you been the one to judge? You don't know what we've been through. First Max – " Isabelle choked back a sob, wiping a hand roughly across her eyes, smudging her makeup.

Oh.

Max.

Alec looked down at the floor, tears of his own threatening to appear. Magnus reached for his hand under the table and squeezed it, hard. Isabelle turned away again, arms wrapped around herself, shoulders shaking with silent tears.

And that was when they heard the front door explode.

**Argh! What's going on? Nah, I'll think of something…**

**Anyway, Duck Life has brought to my attention that I should really make a ficmix of this, so if you have any songs you think might fit this story, just tell me.**

**So, after my long(ish) chapter, it's not going to take that much to click the 'review' button now, is it? XD. Luv yaz!**

**Thanks for reading.**


	8. Angels have a scrap

**Is it normal to get 70+ hits and only 6 reviews? Maybe I'm just over demanding… thanks to all those who did review though. You rock my socks off… If I'd been wearing any… **

The cathedral's entrance was shattered, stone shards and masonry still crumbling, dust swirling in the sudden sunlight. Stone faces were half demolished, runes unrecognizable.

And the two angels were having an all out brawl in the middle of Manhattan traffic.

A pile of rubble bulged outwards and Jace emerged from it, coughing and swearing, shaking grey out of his hair. A few metres away, Clary was also pulling herself out of the debris, a nasty gash on her forehead splashing read onto the floor. At least nobody was dead, which was a definite plus.

And then Abaddon picked up a car and threw it at the opposite building. The vehicle did a 360 and smashed into the second story window, exploding as it collided, fire blossoming across the front of the building. Definitely not a plus.

People were screaming, flaming shards rained down upon the spectators, cars crashing into each other as drivers screeched across the road, trying to escape the burning building.

Abaddon stepped out into Alec's view. Today, he was tall man dressed in a business suit, blonde-brown hair combed back, black sunglasses wrapped around his eyes, but his face was all too recognizable. He saw Alec standing in the ruined entranceway and waved jauntily. Instantly, the ground beneath every single car cracked. Vehicles suddenly dropped on one side, drawing even more panic from the crowd. In the distance, police sirens were wailing and the sound of a helicopter could just be heard over the chaos.

Someone was pulling on his arm – Jace.

"C'mon, we've got to go! Where's Azrael?"

Speak of the devil – well, it was more like speak of the Angel - because at that moment, Azrael appeared out of the smoke and flung himself onto Abaddon. Abaddon's sunglasses fell off as he was thrown forward. Alec saw that his eyes were scooped out pits filled with fire, red and burning.

"Azrael! You little –" Abaddon twisted and struck out, Azrael ducked and shoved a wing into Abaddon's face. Abaddon tried to grab it, but Azrael had already taken flight, narrowly missing the flames coming off the building. A girl in the crowd cried out, pointing at the airborne angel. New Yorkers were getting out of their car, phones and cameras clicking and videoing away. Azrael saw them and waved his hand. Nothing seemed to happen, apart from that it gave Abaddon the time to climb like a spider up the wall of the Institute and launch himself into the air, pulling Azrael with him as they fell, clawing at each other. Rolling along the cracked and uneven ground, Azrael looked up at them, mouthing the word _run_ at them frantically.

To hell with that. Magnus was suddenly beside Alec.

"Isabelle, Alec, tail them. Blondie, you're with me."

"What -?" Jace started, but Magnus grabbed his arm, eyes shining.

"My magic's coming back. Abaddon's not going to stop me this time." And with a sharp lunge forward, he and Jace vanished.

"Where did they go?" Isabelle ran after Alec down the stairs, pushing past the mundies blocking the way.

"Gone for an air ride, I'm guessing – duck!" He pushed Isabelle's head down as the battling angels flew over their heads, Azrael half taking off, Abaddon hanging onto one sneakered foot. His tailored jacket had been torn off, and two small stumps protruded from his back – things that looked suspiciously like the stumps of torn-off wings.

"He let _you_ take my place?" Abaddon was yelling at Azrael as managed to kick him off and leap higher into the air.

"Yeah, because _I_ could do it so much better. How are those wings going?" Azrael danced above Abaddon's head.

"I thought angels were supposed to be nice." Isabelle muttered as they both slid inside an empty car that was still running. They both had glamour on, so it must've looked pretty weird, the doors opening and closing by themselves, but everyone was more focused on the fire truck that had arrived, closely followed by the police.

"What's happening?" Alec said as he drew out his stele and began drawing marks on Isabelle's arm, in case they were pulled into the fight, which was all too possible. Isabelle stuck her head out of the window.

"They nearly rolled into a fire. Oh my God the Institute! Abaddon's noticed the fire trucks. He's – shit!"

Alec heard it before he saw it – a great groaning, screaming mess of metal flying towards over them – heard Azrael yell, and _then_ he saw the four tonne fire truck roll over just above their car, he was flinging himself out the door just as the truck landed, crushing the front of their car and smashing the windscreen. If they'd waited a second longer, their legs, or worse, would have been trapped and broken under the weight. Glass shards now littered the road; Alec's face was scratched and bleeding. Isabelle ran towards him, talking rapidly into her cell phone.

"– yes, they're going that way. You've what? Magnus, you – okay, okay. He's fine. We're going." She stuffed the phone back into a pocket as Alec jumped up, scanning the scene.

"The angels –" he said, not seeing them anywhere amid the smoke, flames and fleeing mundies.

" – are gone." Isabelle said, eyes falling on a pair of motorbikes. "Let's go – they're headed downtown."

**Okay, so I wanted to include the whole car-chase thing – oh shite I just gave it away – in this chapter, but that'd have taken me ages and I wanted to post something up today… so I really hoped you enjoyed it, it was more of a filler if anything else. Anyway, please review and give me your thoughts. I need inspiration!!**

**Thanks for reading – and thanks for those who gave some ficmix suggestions. Keep them coming! x**


	9. Angels feel fear

**Erm… just realised that Clary mysteriously vanished in end of the last chapter… sorry, I totally just forgot about her – for all purposes just pretend Magnus took her with him and Jace, okay? XD **

**Disclaimer: What do you think that means, dumbass? LOL.**

"Clary, report."

Magnus slid over to her on his office chair. He had a fetish for rolling everywhere on that thing.

Clary was seated in front of a massive bank of computers, each one showing something different. She was only concentrating on two of them. Both showed satellite coverage of New York, just like in the movies, and these were real time, real thing. One was zoned on Alec and Isabelle outside the institute, the other was darting rapidly across the area, following the two angels as they fought. Another screen on the right was linked to a camera in Jace's car, a black Aston Martin, which was hovering in the air above Central Park. And no, you did not just read that wrong. Jace had been thrilled. He was currently driving it round and round in the air above the reservoir in the middle of the park, diving here and there at the water, seeing how far he could go without sinking the car, skimming the surface of the water, tyres sending up rainbow sprays. Like a child, really, considering two supernatural entities could be heading his way.

"Uh, Magnus? Tell me again how we're accessing these satellites to information on people like the FBI and the CIA are supposed to have?" Clary said, as Magnus fiddled around with the mic on the desk. It was connected to the three-way channel he had opened up so they could talk to Alec and Isabelle.

"If I told you, it'd corrupt your innocent little mind." Magnus said. "Okay, we're online." He glanced over at the Lightwood screen. They were on the move. "Is it just me, or are those two riding motorcycles?"

* * *

Isabelle whooped in Alec's ear. Actually, she was about a meter and a half away from him, on a sleek red bike that purred when she revved the engine, but they both had their phones shoved into the helmets they'd scavenged.

"Izzy. Please." Alec said as they sped through a busy road running parallel to 5th Avenue. "I think you're having too much fun on these bikes." His own bike was black with silver piping, and at the speed they were going, he was glad he'd stopped to grab his jacket.

"Oh, c'mon. Don't tell me this isn't better than riding a horse."

"I think Jace is a bad influence on you." Alec said.

"Jace is a bad influence on everyone." Isabelle said, swerving past a taxi whilst pulling the finger at the driver, who was yelling at her out the window.

"I doubt Blondie has influence _moi._" Magnus' voice sounded in their ears. "And at the rate you two are going, the NYPD will be all over you."

"Glamour, remember? And they'd be too busy with the institute. I'm more worried about the angels. Where are they? And where are you guys?"

"The angels are hovering above the row of buildings next to the south side of Central Park. Don't think they want to go downtown. Oh, and we're back in my apartment having a cocktail party. Just so you know." Somewhere next to Magnus, they heard Clary say "Hovering my ass. Azrael is just stopping Abaddon from bombing the whole place to Timbuktu."

"That's why we're kind of taking the back seat. Azrael's really good –"Suddenly Magnus swore graphically into the mic.

"What? What's happening?" Alec said, speeding across an intersection without looking properly. Clary took over the mic.

"Chairman Meow just peed all over Magnus' foot." In the background, they could hear Magnus saying "This is a Dolce and Gabbana slipper! It was expensive! Who do you think you are, coming in and –"

"You get the point." Clary said. Her phone rang. "Magnus, take the mic, it's Simon."

"Chairman Meow has been banished." Magnus said. Alec cracked a smile, listening to Magnus' sulky voice. Somehow everyone seemed so relaxed. Was he the only one that was tense here? Maybe they were relying too much on Azrael. He just had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach, like a sixth sense –

Suddenly, Magnus snapped back to full alert.

"Alec, Izzy, there's something coming up right behind you. Several somethings. I think they're –"

Alec glanced over his shoulder – and nearly braked. Instead, he yelled to Izzy and they shot ahead.

Behind them, demons poured into the street.

But not as they had ever seen before. Skeletons with scythes ran along the ground, leaping onto trees, off the side of buildings, the sound of their bones clicking following them clearly down the street. There were other creatures that looked human too, except maybe for the fact that the flesh on their faces were half-rotted off their corpses, eyeballs gone or half eaten away, hair tangled with what looked like… maggots. Alec determinately looked ahead and drove faster. Isabelle's face looked green even through the helmet's tinted visor. There was worse behind them. Alec could feel it.

* * *

Just as Azrael got the upper hand and slammed Abaddon against the hard cement roof of a high-rise building, he felt something tear in the air around them. Like the fabric of the mortal world splitting against the weight of the afterlife. He paled, gripping Abaddon's jacket tighter.

"You let them loose, didn't you?" he said, almost in a whisper. To think what could happen – what would happen –

Abaddon grinned up at him, even through the black blood staining his mouth.

"What did you think? That I'd play nice? Grow up, Golden Boy."

And he flung Azrael off the side of the fifty story building.

* * *

The spiders appeared just as Alec and Izzy reached the angels. They could see two shapes by the roof of The Ritz-Carlton building, Azrael's wings distorting his silhouette against a grey sky. They slid to a halt next to the sidewalk, craning their heads up to watch. What else could they do? Alec looked round at the surrounding mundies, but they all had their heads down, talking to each other, or on cell phones, or listening to music in their cars. What would they see if they looked up?

Alec was snapped out of his reverie as he heard Isabelle stifle a scream. He turned his head. Slowly.

There was a spider on his back. He could feel all eight of its legs latched into his jacket. It had eight eyes. And pincers that dripped venom. The venom ate through the material of his fighting gear like acid. Alec could see every bristly hair on its back. He could notice all of this because one, the spider was practically nose to nose with him, and two, because the spider was as twice as big as both his fists shoved together. With a swallowed cry he swung a hand to knock it off his shoulder, but it stayed on, hissing, its eyes glittering. Suddenly it reared, pincers snapping, and Alec knew it was about to bite him. And it wasn't going to be nice.

* * *

Back in Magnus' apartment, they zoomed in impossibly close to see what was happening. What was happening was that Isabelle was swinging a dagger at her brother's back.

* * *

"Ha!"

The spider split in half. Very messily, and all over Alec's jacket. Isabelle wiped her blade on the back of Alec's bike.

"Thanks," Alec said, both meaning it and being sarcastic at the same time. Then his eyes widened.

"Izzy –"

Isabelle had already leapt off the bike. The second spider landed on the seat instead, then prepared to jump again. It had come out of nowhere, but as Alec cast his eyes around, he saw spiders emerging from everywhere – cracks in the pavement, out of the building walls, down from the branches of trees, from the space between two buildings...

In his ear, Magnus said

"I hate spiders."

"So do we," Isabelle said, slowly backing towards Alec and drawing a dagger. He did the same. "So do we."

* * *

Magnus picked up another mic.

"Jace?"

"Right here, captain –"

"Jace! Get your ass down to the south side of Central Park. You know where the The Ritz-Carlton building is?"

"On it." Jace had obviously heard Magnus' tone of voice. Serious. And afraid.

"We should cross the road."

Alec said. Isabelle glanced behind at the traffic. Then beyond it. The entire street was literally crawling with spiders now. They could hear the scuttling sound of spider legs against the gravel, the clicking of pincers shining with poison. If they all sprang, Alec and Isabelle were goners.

The Aston Martin was glamoured, but it could still hit and kill things, as well as cause a mysterious breeze to ruffle the heads of the mundies below. Jace swooped over the trees, flooring the accelerator. He could the pathways set through the park, the fountains, the stretches of grass full of flashing cameras, the carriages pulled by horses standing by the sidewalk as cars and tourist buses roared past… he angled the car straight up as he hit West 58th Street sideways, tyres just missing the windows of each floor.

And then two things happened. Magnus' voice crackled out of the speaker as he yelled at him, something about the angels, dead creatures –

And a rotting corpse threw itself onto his windscreen from the roof of the residence, cracking it, punching a hole in the glass, reaching for him with a four fingered hand –

* * *

"Should I make those spiders attack?"

Abaddon asked, slashing at Azrael's face with a hand whose fingernails were growing longer and sharper by the minute.

"What have these nephilim done?" Azrael said, jumping onto the roof of the next building. They were doing a marathon across the top of New York, and leaving a massive path of destruction behind them. _Father in Heaven, hear my prayer_, Azrael thought, hard.

"Oh, nothing." Abaddon said. "They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it'd be nice to add a Shadowhunter and a Warlock to my collection, don't you think?"

_Smite this fallen brother into hell, _Azrael thought, in a very unholy manner. Then he did some work of his own. A hard task, since Abaddon suddenly launched himself at Azrael with such force they went straight through the roof of an office block.

* * *

Isabelle swung her blade in a wide arc just as the spider vanished. Gone. Poof. Nothing left except holes in Alec's jacket. And then a car careened over the top of the opposite building, a body hanging onto the windscreen, and Jace at the wheel, heading straight for the ground below.

* * *

Clary grasped the monitor like she was grasping a lifeline. She was suddenly, horribly scared. Before, she'd been more relaxed despite the situation. An angel was on the case, for God's sake. But now, the face of a two-month old dead person filled the screen, grinning, or maybe that was just because it was half-skull anyway, and Jace…

* * *

"Son of a –"

Jace felt the car tilt downwards, knew he was heading straight down to a concrete hell, and the damn dead thing – if only he could see where he was going! He grappled with a seraph blade, shouted its name and stabbed down. The creature opened its mouth and let an unearthly scream. Shouldn't his voice box be rotted or something? But the demon didn't draw its hand back. Maybe it had no nerves left and was just angry. Dimly, he heard someone shout his name, there was nothing for it but to ignore the corpse, he drew the car straight again –

Straight into the path of a trailer. The creature was crushed between the two vehicles. But Jace – what happened to him was what happened to everyone else who didn't look before they crossed the intersection. Take one car, against a solid object, at the speed of accelerated gravitational pull plus a swerving last-minute manoeuvre, and you had a lot of blood, and lot of broken bones, and most possibly, a lot of death.

* * *

Isabelle was screaming, her voice practically cracking the speakers at the other end. Clary was bone white, staring at the blank screen.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

It had all been fun and games. They'd relied on Azrael. Suddenly the flying car didn't sound so cool after all.

* * *

The man with the trailer had stopped, and had gotten out of his car and was staring at the Aston Martin that lay crumpled against the sidewalk. Apart from randomly appearing out of nowhere, the strangest thing was that there was no one at the wheel. There was a lot of blood, sure, but no body. People were crowding round, asking unanswerable questions. The incident would be on the news, after the disaster near 96th street, and next to the many mysterious happenings of that day such as roofs caving in, pipes exploding, trees in Central Park keeling over from the roots, the glass of skyscrapers shattering, roads cracking, as well as an increasing death toll…

* * *

Alec hurriedly drew on an _iratze_ on Jace's chest, praying with all his might that Jace would live through this. It was the airbag that had saved him, but he'd been unconscious when Alec and Isabelle had dragged him out of the car and into an alleyway. Blood bubbled from his nose, which was good, because it meant he was still breathing. The rune sank into Jace's skin. All they could do was wait, and draw runes. Jace had to live. He _had_ to. Because if he died, it would be all Alec's fault.

* * *

In between one floor and another, Azrael felt the battle shift. He'd been positive that he'd be stronger, much stronger than Abaddon, but somehow, his predecessor had gained so much power, too much power than any fallen angel had ever had before. Except Lucifer, of course, but this was getting seriously out of hand.

"What, getting some doubts, are we?" Abaddon said, throwing a fireball at him. Azrael ducked, and the flames engulfed the entire apartment. Hellfire.

"Never," Azrael doused the flames, but this gave Abaddon the chance to sink a punch into his stomach. His wings were of no use here. If he could just get back into the air! He spat golden blood at Abaddon. Options, options. Where were his options?

* * *

Clary grabbed Magnus' arm.

"Azrael vanished." She said, pointing at the middle screen. Instead of two dots, one black and one white, only the black one remained. Magnus reached for the keyboard, finger flying over it. It was strange, seeing the warlock with technology. Another screen flicked on above the middle one. This was showed the white dot, but just as the image settle, the dot disappeared again.

"What is he -?" Clary began, just as the entire apartment shut down. All the monitors went black, the machinery whirring to a halt, all the lights snapped off.

Behind them, they heard a painful cough, then a groan.

"Sorry." Azrael said, casting a slight golden light into the darkness. "I always have an effect on things."

Slowly, a light flickered back on, but much dimmer. Clary and Magnus crouched down next the Angel of Death. He looked absolutely horrible. Golden and black blood covered his face and clothes, his wings were bent and ruffled. His clothes were half torn away.

"What happened?" Magnus said, producing clothes, bandages, water and a first-aid kit from thin air. Azrael waved them away, struggling to sit up.

"He's too strong," he rasped out, then doubled over, retching. He was obviously weaker than he'd been letting on to Abaddon.

"What can we do?" Magnus said. Clary looked at him, at his pale, drawn face, the pain in his eyes, and felt like she was looking at someone else entirely.

Azrael looked up at Magnus with blood and tears in his eyes.

"There is only one way," he said. "Alec must die."

**That was the most painful chapter to write, for some reason. Okay, firstly, I do not have anything against spiders. And I also don't know who has access to satellite coverage. The only information I have places in New York City is from Google Earth. And I forgot where the Institute was. Any typos are due to not editing (that's time restrictions for you).**

**Anyway, please give me your thoughts on this (I'm practically on my knees here) because I really don't want to make Alec die. So any plot-bunnies would help too, if you've got any. Plus any thoughts on how the flow of this chapter went, because I'm not sure how well I write action and all that. So click that damn review button!**

**Thanks for reading, as always. x**


	10. Angel hang out together

**Hey guys, thanks for all the great plot ideas and long reviews, they were totally awesome! Just noticed my chapters are getting long az... So, on with it…**

_Some time earlier…_

"Crap weather,"

Simon said, glancing at the grey sky out of the café window.

"You can say that again," Maia said, taking a sip of her coffee. "Totally ruins our plan of Central Park."

"Uh huh." Simon said, looking across at Maia as she flicked through a magazine. He wasn't sure how he felt about her and she wasn't sure either. Maia had received a lot of crap for being friends with a vampire, Simon not so much for being friends with a werewolf, as he didn't 'hang out' with 'his kind'. But Maia didn't take crap from anyone, and plus, her own pack leader Luke was married to a Shadowhunter.

Simon was wondering whether to strike up a deep and meaningful conversation about it when the overhead television broadcasting afternoon news suddenly flashed into 'Breaking News'.

"An explosion off East 103rd Street has caused police, fire fighters and hospital staff to rush to the scene. Witnesses claim a car flew into the air and collided with the second and third stories of the nearby apartments block. We have no confirmed casualties at this stage, but after the explosion, several cars did crash and the road cracked in several places, an event that still goes unexplained. Somehow, although onlookers had phones and cameras at the ready, nobody managed to capture the actual event on tape. Witnesses also claim that two men where the cause of the disaster, and that they were fighting each other until they mysteriously vanish. Again, no video evidence."

The screen rolled into video coverage of the area, focusing on the cars tilted on the edges into gaping holes in the ground, the fires eating across the front of the building, the fire fighters bursting out of the doors dragging people with them. Simon heard a woman screaming

"My baby! My child –"

Across the table, Maia reached out to touch his arm.

"Simon –"

Then the camera panned around the street, and Simon finally recognized it.

"Maia! It's the Institute! Look – I bet you it has something to do with them."

Maia looked at the screen, then back at him. Simon was already dialling Clary's number on his phone.

Maia had a bad feeling about all of this, and, even if she was a werewolf, she still had a woman's intuition. And she was right. Unfortunately.

* * *

_The present:_

Alec heard only silence from the other end of the phone, punctuated by some coughing, then muffled voices, a phone dialling, and then silence again.

"Magnus? Clary? You there?"

There was a slight burst of static, then Azrael picked up.

"Alec? It's me. You need to get of there and back to the Institute very, very fast. You got me?"

"Well, Jace is kind of injured –"

"No, seriously. We can heal him later. You got a car?"

Alec looked up at Isabelle. She shook her head.

"We've only –"

Clary cut him off.

"Don't worry, Simon's on it. Is there enough time, Azrael?"

"We can only hope." Azrael said, which did not sound promising.

* * *

Abaddon whipped around, thrashing against the silver wire that Azrael had tangled him in. Angels had their tricks all right, making silver holy, the bloody bastards. All this playing nice and by the rules was complete bullshit. And now Azrael had jumped off somewhere. With a final heave, Abaddon wrenched himself free. He'd go after that stupid Nephilim and his sister next, and Azrael would come running. Oh, so predictable.

* * *

Azrael held out one hand to Magnus and one had to Clary.

"We'd better go," he said. "I'll jump us to the Institute." He waved away Magnus' suggestion that he should jump them. "You wouldn't be able to transport an angel. You'd probably die."

"Can't we just 'jump' to get Jace and Alec and Isabelle first?" Clary asked, gripping the Angel's had tight. She could feel the wounds healing on his palms.

"I'm not in my best condition," Azrael said, in a strange voice, but before Clary could identify what it was, the world was tipped upside-down.

* * *

Simon drove hectically uptown, Maia next to him, muttering something about _Shadowhunters_ and _dependency. _Clary had hung up after he'd called her at the café, and then called back again, her voice slightly breathless and choked up, but she'd just said "Tell you later," when he'd asked. She'd also asked him for a "big favour" and from her short call he'd got the gist of "Jace injured" and "Alec and Izzy" and, most importantly "very, _very _powerful and evil demon attacking". Which was great. Just another thing to add to his eternal To-Do List. Save Shadowhunter asses yet again.

* * *

Jace opened his eyes, surfacing from unconsciousness, and decided it was a very bad idea. He felt like he'd been slammed into a concrete floor several times over from the top of the Empire State Building.

"Jace!" Somebody grabbed his shoulders – which _hurt_ – and breathed for what sounded like the first time in years.

"That's my name, don't wear it out," Jace said, then promptly spat blood all over Alec.

"God, I thought… we both thought –"

"Oh, you thought, did you? Well done, great achievement. Now, what the heck is going on?"

Isabelle appeared back into the alleyway, hands full of cloth and other necessities. She saw Jace was awake and dropped everything to envelope him in a hug.

"Ohmigod, Jace, can't you ever think?" she said. "You went off the edge of a… a… I don't even know how tall that building was but –"

"Izzy. Please." Jace sat up, slowly, a hand to his head. "I'm feeling really hungover, okay? No loud noises." Isabelle settled for grasping his hand, which also hurt, Jace remembered flinging his arm in front his face a second before impact; it must have been crushed by the airbag. Alec looked down at him, his face torn between relief and anger. Jace noticed he had that effect on people. When they wanted to hug him and strangle him at the same time.

Jace was about to remark on this when a shadow fell over the sky. As in, the entire sky. They all looked up. After the slight rain they'd had before, the sky had stayed a white-grey, but now, suddenly, darkness had fallen over them, like a blanket being thrown over the world.

"Oh Jesus." Jace said, just as a man stepped into the alley, blocking the entrance. He had an aura about him that seemed to darken the air, and his shadow filled the air around them, smothering them, even though there was really no sun a shadow in the first place.

"Well well well." The man said, taking his sunglasses off. "We do meet again." His eyes were two hollowed holes filled with fire.

Abaddon was back.

* * *

Clary woke up on the floor of the library, finding herself face to face with the strange patterns and designs cast into the carpet. Sitting up, she found Azrael on the couch, reading a book.

"Where's Magnus?" she asked, getting unsteadily to her feet.

"In Isabelle's room, I think." Azrael said, flipping a page. He looked cleaned up, tidy, normal. He was still wearing track pants and a jacket, both brand new. He looked distinctly pissed off.

"What's new?" Clary said, after a pause. She couldn't say "what's wrong", because everything was wrong, or "what happened", because everything had happened, so "What's new" sounded better.

"Oh, nothing." Azrael said, waving a cup of coffee in the air that had not been in his hand before. "Just had my ass kicked and my ego totally busted. I couldn't even transport you properly. Plus no one's online to reply to me. Wish I could speak to Thomas Aquinas about this, he'd know a thing or two. Or Jude, though he's a bit dreary, you know, Patron Saint of Lost Causes and all."

"This is _not_ a lost cause," Clary said, suddenly angry. Azrael looked up at her, surprised.

"Exactly. That's why I didn't really want to talk to Jude. No need to bite my heavenly head off."

Clary sank down onto the couch next to him, leaning her head against her hands.

"Sorry."

"All good. It happens. We all go find Dymphna for this, she's the best."

"What's she the Patron Saint of?" Clary asked with a smile.

"Nerves. Oh wait, how about Expedite, Infant of Prague? Patron Saint of speedy results…"

Clary laughed, tiredly.

"No, seriously, Azrael. What are we going to do?"

The Angel grew quiet, staring into space.

"There may be alternatives," he said, slowly and Clary's heart lifted for a second, then the angel continued, "but they're really, _really_ risky, even for me to attempt. And Abaddon will probably know exactly what we're doing and how to stop it. He's had my job before, remember?"

"Have you told Magnus this?" Clary asked, almost in a whisper.

"I don't want to get his hopes up." Azrael looked at Clary, almost pityingly. "You know, I like you guys and all, but I'm an angel. Immortal. Forever. What might happen here in, what, the 21st Century is really just a tiny glitch in the system for us, unless Abaddon declares all out war against Heaven, which he won't as he's only a fallen angel – "

Clary felt her blood go cold.

"_Only_ a fallen angel?" She said, feeling the anger building up inside her again. "You're the one saying he kicked your ass!"

Azrael made a face.

"Yes, well, he took me by surprise." He said this like he'd say "I just had the wrong shoes", or "I did bad in my tryouts".

"Wait a minute." Clary said. "Are you saying that none of this matters to you? That you'll just let Alec die, wait for this to sort itself out?" All previous affection she'd held for the Angel was fading rapidly. Azrael looked uncomfortable.

"Well, no, of course not. I mean, we need to get Abaddon right out of the picture as soon as possible, and if Alec doesn't die, I mean, that's a great added bonus –"

"Added bonus?" Clary said, getting a really bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. "_Added bonus?_ How can you say that?"

"Clary," Azrael said, almost pleadingly. "Look at it from our point of view. All I'm trying to say is the alternatives I might be suggesting – and that's a huge 'might' – upset the entire balance of the two worlds. It's just not right, and if it tips the scales and sends everything tumbling apocalypse style – well, is it worth it, is all I'm saying."

"You're an _angel. _How can it possibly go wrong? You're supposed to be right up there in the supernatural ladder! The Angel of Death, for God's sake –" Azrael winced, " – invincible, taker of souls, destroyer of lives, though I have to say you're destroying lives pretty well at the moment –"

"Clary. Please." Azrael looked very, very tired. "Take a step back from what you're saying. The Law is hard, but it is the Law. Think of it that way, for me."

_The Law is hard, but it is the Law_.

"So you're giving up?" Clary said, softly.

Azrael looked at her, so terribly, terribly shredding her heart for somebody else, and something inside him snapped.

"Of course not." He said, suddenly brisk. "Just give me some time to think about it."

_What are you doing?_ Said a little voice in his head. _Think about it, you big softie. You're going to get it big time if this goes wrong. _He set his face in a hard frown. _The Law is hard, and it is the Law, but some rules were just meant to be broken.

* * *

_

Isabelle stood up, slowly, whip coiled, ready to strike. Abaddon laughed.

"There's a reason guns were invented," he said, and waved his fingers. Isabelle's whip was pulled towards him, and Isabelle, unable to let go, was dragged forward, until she was nose to nose with the Fallen Angel. He smelt like burnt flesh and blood.

"Aren't you a pretty one," Abaddon said, grinning at her. His teeth were black.

"Brush your teeth," Isabelle spat at him, in a great imitation of what Jace would have said. Sparks flew from Abaddon's eyes. Jace and Alec glanced at each other, minds churning for Plan B, and both thinking the same thing. _Shit.

* * *

_

"Turn left – _left!_"

Simon flung the steering wheel around and they finally, finally entered the right street, just as a man in sunglasses and a suit appeared on the sidewalk and turned into an alley. Simon and Maia looked at each other. They could practically feel the demon-ness radiating from him.

"Drive!" Maia yelled and Simon paused, staring.

"C'mon, it's him – run him over, run him over – "

"You're far too excited," Simon said, and swerved into the alleyway.

Suddenly, the ground around Isabelle burst into flames, a perfect circle. She screamed. Abaddon shook his head.

"Stupid, stupid, Ne –"

He didn't even get a chance to get the word out of his mouth as car swerved right into the alley – and ran him over. The fire went out, immediately. Isabelle stared.

Simon got out of the car.

"That was lame." Jace said. "Very lame."

* * *

For Magnus, make-up was like therapy. Clary found him with a full face of it, looking like his usual self. Even his hair was back to glittery spikes. She looked at him, eyebrows raised, and he made a gesture as if to say _well, what else am I supposed to do?_ And said

"Has our friend the Angel said anything useful?"

Clary remembered with a flash Azrael's disregard of them.

"Oh, just some stuff. I had a word with him though."

"Huh." Magnus looked her with a funny expression.

"What?"

"Have I ever mentioned how much you're like Jocelyn when you're determined?"

* * *

" – and then Jace is hits the ground at a hundred miles per hour –"

" – hardly – "

" – nearly _dies_ –"

" – hey, do my driving skills get any credit in this? I didn't even munt up my face." Jace was sitting in the passenger seat next to Simon, recounting the day while Alec leaned forward from the backseat to join in the conversation. Maia and Isabelle sat on either side of him, both studiously silent and looking out opposite windows.

"Your face is already munted, Jace," Simon said, grinning at Alec in the rear view mirror.

"You're just jealous," Jace said, posing. Then he stopped, frowning.

"Can you guys here that?" he said.

Behind them, the earth began to tremble. There was a slight rumbling sound that grew louder and louder.

"You just can't kill people the way you used to, can you?" Jace said.

* * *

Azrael wasn't in the library. Clary felt her heart speed up. Had he abandoned them? Could Angels do that?

"Clary?" Magnus said, appearing behind her. "You might want to come down and see this."

* * *

Abaddon was angry. Very angry. So angry, in fact, that he decided to risk all and simply let go. Let's see how those winged pussies dealt with him now…

* * *

"Something's burning."

Jace held his out of the window.

"You look like a dog." Simon said, cutting across into another lane, then cutting back again, earning himself several fingers from truck drivers.

"No, seriously, something's really burning. Tune the radio to a news station, would you?"

Simon fiddled with the dial – and there was chaos.

"We're getting mass reports of a wild fire that's spreading rapidly through Midtown Manhattan –" said one.

"The fire brigade are working overtime as unexplained fire that's refusing to yield continues to –" said another. And then, the next station –

"Oh my God, oh my God –"

" – fire, evacuate the building, I repeat, evacuate all personnel –"

"Simon?" Maia said. "Don't panic, but take a look behind us."

Behind them, flames were dancing from the rooftops of Manhattan.

* * *

The Cathedral, usually so quiet and utterly empty, was, today, full of voices that could be heard even above the rattle of the elevator. Clary stopped, mouth open, as the gates opened.

The House of God was full of Angels.

* * *

Abaddon grinned. It felt good to be back in his proper demon form. None of that human flesh nonsense weighing him down. As he swept past the streets, hellfire leapt onto the buildings. Mortal began to scream, and, behind him, their souls flew to him. He gathered them up , claiming them. He felt the power rushing through him. Who needed drugs when souls can give you the greatest highs?

* * *

"Ah, Clary,"

Azrael made his way towards her past a female angel with brilliant white wings who was smiling and talking to an old, grey-haired saint, who was standing next to a circle of robed, serious looking people with actual halos hovering above their hair.

"You… summoned them?" Clary asked, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene before her. This had to be written down, passed through history. Angels and Saints, in this Institute, in the mortal realm, together, so many of them –

"Well, you got me thinking, you know, and I was like, c'mon guys, join the party. I'm still waiting for some of the 'higher ups' to arrive, they take _ages_. Oh, wait, there's John – got to run, talk to you later – oh, and watch the language, 'okay? Some get a bit… distressed."

"Ha, okay. And Az?" Clary said, sick of saying 'Azrael' all the time.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For changing your mind."

Azrael grinned.

"Guess Mister Death ain't too bad after all, huh?" He said, and he was gone.

* * *

Simon managed to avoid killing them all for the seventeenth time as he made his way through another intersection while trying to look behind him.

"Simon! Keep your eyes on the damn road!" Maia said, hanging on the back of the passenger seat.

"You're doing fine," Isabelle said, just to piss Maia off. Alec went to roll his eyes, but he didn't have the time.

Because at that moment, Abaddon turned the corner behind them. There was a wall of fire following him. No, he was part of it. And he was smiling.

"Drive!" They all screamed, and Simon floored the accelerator.

* * *

The Angels and Saints were praying. Clary remembered that day, years ago, when she and Jace had discovered Ithuriel in the cellar of Valentine's Mansion. They were singing a single, pure note that filled the cathedral, but somehow there were many, many more sounds woven into the sound, different languages mixing seamlessly in one song. Clary could make out Latin, Hebrew, French, English and some other human languages, and then, around them, languages unspoken by any man, Nephilim or Downworlder, languages that sounded like fire burning and water running, and wind rushing through leaves, and snow covering the mountains, if she closed her eyes she could see runes dancing across her mind…

"Clary?"

Magnus was holding her steady by both shoulders, looking at her with mild concern. Clary realised Magnus was still standing just in front of the elevator.

"You looked faint. Must be the praying." Magnus looked over at the figures standing together and swaying slightly with the music.

"Doesn't it affect you?"

Magnus' face closed up.

"I'm half-demon, remember?" He said. Oh. So that's why he didn't want to come out. Maybe Angels were as Downworlder-phobic as the Lightwoods had been. Then that brought Clary to another thought. Maybe Angels were homophobic too. Magnus was committing sins by just being alive…

The Cathedral was suddenly bathed in golden light. Several Angels were glowing, softly. As Clary and Magnus watched, and as the singing grew louder, the light grew, piercing beams of sunlight shining out of their skin, their clothes, their wings. As the music climaxed, making Clary's head spin, there was a burst of light so bright she had to shield her eyes, and when she looked back the glowing Angels had vanished. An almost sad sigh ran through the remaining Saints and Angels as the singing ceased.

"They've gone to other Institutes." Magnus said, looked awed in spite of himself. "I think this crisis is going on all over the world. If _I_ could portal like that…"

"Don't bet on it, Warlock." Azrael had sidled away from the main group back over to them.

"Personally I like being called Magnus, but whatever suits you Heavenly Beings is fine, of course." Magnus said. Azrael looked at him, head cocked to one side, like a bird when its thinking.

"You know, we aren't racist to Downworlders or anything. You're still half human, and we tend to look on that side of things. It makes things so much nicer. It's not like you're all evil or anything. Also," he continued, lowering his voice. "all that crap in the Bible about being against gays is a load of bull –"

"Ah, Azrael," A very grand looking angel with huge, well-kept grey wing swept over to them. He was holding a book, and had more hair on his chin then on his head. "Here's Magnus, of course. I'm Jude," He held out a hand. Magnus shook it, thoroughly surprised. Clary saw him checking his hand afterwards. Maybe checking if he'd been holy-fied. "Now, I'd like to talk to both parties. Where's Alexander?"

* * *

Alec, was, in fact, very close to the Institute. On the other hand, so was Abaddon.

"Dodge -!" Jace flung himself at the steering wheel, jerking it to the right just as another fireball slammed into the tarmac inches away from them.

"Dude, dude, I can't see –" Simon pushed Jace off his lap from where he'd half fallen into and narrowly avoided hitting a lamppost. "Nearly there, nearly there," he said, glancing behind at Maia, Alec and Isabelle, who all had their faces pressed against the back window and shouting instructions.

"We're losing him, we're losing him, I swear we're losing him," he heard Alec say, almost in a chant.

"We've got to make a break for it – the road will be too clogged."

"Why are we letting the sixteen-year old make the decisions?" Jace said, fingers already on the door handle.

"I am _not_ sixteen, jerk," Simon growled, and swerved towards the Institute.

* * *

"Magnus. I need to talk to you. _Now._"

Azrael pulled on the warlock's sleeve.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming." Magnus joined the Angel in a corner by the choir stalls. Clary was having a deep-and-meaningful conversation with Jude. "What is it?"

"About the… deal with Abaddon." Azrael was looking distinctly shift, eyes darting from side to side, making sure no one was listening in.

"Yes?"

"Well, I think I've got a plan… Magnus, how far would you go to save Alec?"

Magnus gave him a look.

"Isn't that obvious?"

Azrael chewed on a fingernail.

"No. I mean, seriously, how far?"

Magnus rolled his eyes.

"Not to be a cliché or anything, but how about walking into hell and staying there if need be?"

"Oh. Okay. Good. Because if this doesn't work that's exactly what you'll be doing."

"So, you going to tell me?"

"Okay." Azrael took a deep breath. "It's like this…"

* * *

"Go, go, go!"

Simon, Jace, Maia, Alec and Isabelle all flung themselves out of the car at the same time, already sprinting. There was a blood-chilling roar behind them.

Ten metres to go. Isabelle vaulted over the front of crashed car, leaping a deep crack in the earth. Maia was half Changed, on all fours, Simon already far ahead. Alec was with Jace, who was struggling a little. He _had_ just driven off a roof.

Five metres to go. The impossible happened – it was raining fire. Not hot little shards – big, explosive bombs that hit that melted the road. They could almost feel Abaddon leaping towards them, but they forced themselves not to look back.

"Motherfu-" fire caught onto Jace's sleeve, which flared immediately. They were running too fast, how could they stop to smother it?

One metre to go. Isabelle dived for the door, not having the time to notice it'd somehow been mended. Maia came right after, one minute wolf-like, the next, a girl.

Simon went to slide in behind them – and staggered back. Alec caught up to him, Jace next to him, clutching his arm.

"It's – holy." Simon said, looking at his blackened hand that was healing already. "I can't go in." He stepped slowly back into the acid rain. "I'm damned."

"Simon – just –" Alec pressed himself against the door, trying to avoid the fire.

"Go, Shadowhunter, go hide. Catch up with you guys later, 'kay?"

And he was gone, a blur of bloodlessly white skin, who, although not wicked in the slightest, could not enter sanctuary.

Azrael finished explaining just as the door of the Cathedral burst open and Isabelle fell in, followed by Maia.

Just before Jace limped in, with Alec slamming the doors shut behind them, just before Clary broke through the crowd towards them, running to Jace, then drawing back, saying

"Where's Simon?" then the horrible realisation that Simon was still out there, unable to set a foot inside…

Just before all that, Magnus looked at Azrael, taking in all that he'd said, realising that _this_ was the Master Plan that came from an Angel, and was supposed to save everything and everyone, and said, quietly,

"Oh, _God_."

Azrael didn't say anything, because that was exactly what he'd been thinking himself.

**Anymore plot bunnies/ideas/scenes/twists/holes (or just, you know, good ol' reviews), appreciated. Especially about Azrael's Master Plan... Sorry for the wait, really busy at the moment. But don't worry – the end is in sight! **

**Thanks for reading!x**


	11. Angels are ruthless

**Just realised I can almost see the end of the story… the next bits are going to be very hard to write, so bear with me, okay? Sorry for the long wait. Thanks to all have kept with the story so far!

* * *

**

It was raining.

Grey sky was mixing with the grey smoke that rose over the city from the recent fires that had now been drenched. Police cars were making their way through flooded roads. Buildings that had not been ravaged by fire had become refuge for the mundanes that were all trying to figure out what was happening to the world.

Alec turned away from the window.

Azrael was holding a meeting in the library, the Angels, Saints and Shadowhunters all gathered around him. Clary had her head on Jace's shoulder, and Alec could tell she was thinking of Simon. Isabelle sat very straight next to them, and Maia was standing next to Magnus, two Downworlders in the midst of so many holy beings.

The situation was turning out to be even worse than they had originally thought.

" – we're talking about a whole-scale rebellion here." Azrael was saying. "Remember that disaster in Haiti? And Chile?"

"Not to mention China and Taiwan," said an Angel with straight black hair. "We've never heard the last of those." There were murmurs of agreement.

"Medard's holding Abaddon off with the rain, but how long is that going to last? What else is he likely to throw at us, Azrael?"

Before Azrael answered, Alec noticed Magnus beckoning to him. Glancing at the group, he walked over to them.

"I need to talk to you," Magnus said, opening the door.

"Can't it wait?" Alec said.

"Please."

Alec walked out into the corridor. Magnus looked over at Azrael before he followed, giving the Angel a look that said _this had better work.

* * *

_

As soon as Magnus closed the door, an Angel with silver hair turned to Azrael, pinning him with a horrified stare.

"Azrael. You're not seriously planning to –"

Azrael looked away.

"Anybody got a better idea?" he said. "It's not like we're getting anymore help, and this is my area of expertise, is it not?"

"What is going on?" Jace said, untangling himself from Clary looking from one Angel to another.

"Alec's being sacrificed, that's what's going on," said the Angel with silver hair.

* * *

"What is it?"

Alec could just make out Magnus' features in the dim light. He looked slightly sick.

"Are you alright?' Alec said, reaching out a hand.

"Don't –" Magnus jerked away from him. Alec stepped back. It would've been better if Magnus had just slapped him.

"What is going on?" Alec didn't know that Jace was asking exactly the same question back in the library.

Magnus drew a shaky breath.

"Alec, I'm sorry," he said, and made a slashing movement with his hand.

Alec was unconscious before he even hit the floor.

* * *

Jace flung himself at the door.

"Stop him –" Azrael said, but it was too late.

There was a yell, then a bang, and then –

"What the _hell_ did you do to him?"

Jace came back into the room, dragging an unconscious Alec with him. Isabelle cried out and ran to him.

Magnus walked in.

"What are you playing at?" Isabelle said, shoving him back. "What have you done Alec?"

"Nephilim, _please –_" Azrael was on his feet, but Clary had turned on him.

"You promised me nothing like this was going to happen!" she said. "You promised, you bastard –"

"I have no time for this –" Azrael said, gesturing at Magnus. Clary, Jace and Isabelle all froze. Maia waved a hand in front of Isabelle's face, which was caught in a snarl as she grabbed for Magnus, her arms stuck in midair. Clary's red hair was flying, caught there, and Jace was still supporting Alec.

"Quickly, quickly," Azrael said, helping Magnus lift Alec's limp form onto the table. "Okay, I want everybody out," he said at the crowd of shocked Angels and Saints. "Unfreeze the mortals, and keep them contained, okay?"

Magnus waved his hand again and Clary, Jace and Isabelle became animated again.

"What're you doing to him –" Jace said, trying to fight his way through the Angels forcing him out the door.

"Azrael! I thought you said you cared -" Clary shouted, unable to see him over the crowd.

Isabelle could see perfectly well.

"I thought you loved him, Magnus," she said, softly, and vanished through the door.

* * *

"Magnus, I think you'd better go –" Azrael said, pulling on a pair of white latex gloves.

"I am not leaving," Magnus said. "Not after what you've forced me through." He could still hear Isabelle's word echoing inside his head. _I thought you loved him. _

"Yes. Well." Azrael said. "Just keep calm. This is extremely technical."

He placed a finger on each of Alec's eyes and drew his hand back in a swift motion.

Alec's soul came away.

It looked like smoke, for a second, roiling in the palm of Azrael's hand, grey, and then gold, mixed with blue.

Magnus stared at it.

"Is that…" he said.

"Yup. One Shadowhunter soul right here. In a very substantial form, of course. Now, here's the hard part."

He produced a glass container from nowhere and set it beside Alec. Dropping his soul into the container, he quickly put a lid on it. The soul grew to fill the box, still swirling and changing colours.

"Can he feel anything?" Magnus asked, lowering his voice as if Alec could hear him.

"Nope. That's why I had you put him to sleep, so he wouldn't feel anything."

"Okay, here's what I'm going to do," Azrael said, taking out a small dagger. "Think about it like this. Alec is half-human, half-angel, right? Now, I'm going to implant a sort of angel bomb, or a _бомба_ in the angel part of his soul. When Abaddon eats Alec's soul, the _бомба_ will detonate and kill him." He paused. "In theory."

"You're not sure?"

"Well, this has hardly been done before, has it?"

"And some scenarios would be?"

Abaddon looked down at Alec's pale face.

"If we don't get Alec's soul back to him fast enough, his body's going to suffer quite a bit. Also, the bomb could fail to detonate. The entire thing could backfire and end up making Abaddon virtually invincible."

Magnus felt that there was something Azrael was still not telling him.

"Are the possibilities you just said quite possible?"

"Uh… no. Like, a tiny chance."

"So, the biggest problem would be…?"

Abaddon looked up at him.

"Like I said, Alec's half and half, right? I'm burying the _бомба _really deep into his soul so that Abaddon's not going to know about it until it's too late. However, when it does go off, it's going to blast apart Alec's angelic side of his soul."

"And that means…?" Magnus said, although it was becoming all to obvious what it would mean.

"Alec would become human. But, since he's so heavily Marked…"

"He'd become a Forsaken," Magnus said, meeting Azrael's eyes.

Azrael cut a shallow cut along the palm of his left hand so that golden blood welled up from the wound. Tipping his hand, he let the drops fall onto the lid of the container…

The drops fell right through the glass as if it weren't there and mixed into Alec's soul. The drops drew towards each other into a tiny sphere and buried itself into the centre of the swirling smoke until they couldn't see it anymore.

"Yes, he'd become a Forsaken." Azrael said, opening the container and lifting Alec's soul out. "And then he'd die."

* * *

**So, there's the scenarios for you. Now, I do have happy ending possibilities too, but seriously, think about it – wouldn't a tragic end have some merit as well? Or do you have a better idea altogether? Please drop me a note and tell me what you think!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	12. Alec: Last Moments

**Thank you thank you thank you for all the reviews etc. I am so nervous about writing the end because I don't want to ruin it… **

Alec opened his eyes.

It was raining.

His thought came in chunks, slow and disjointed. He found himself in a clothes shop, sitting on a chair, surrounded by people. His eyes followed their movements. He could see their lips moving, sounds coming out, question filling the air. Questions, endless questions. The radio was on in the background. A baby was crying.

"Hey, Mister," someone was waving their hand in front of his face. Alec looked up. A mundie girl. Silver eyebrow stud against dark skin. "You okay?"

Alec opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His voice had hidden in the desert of his dry insides. He nodded instead, telling one of the most commonly told lies in history – I'm fine. The girl touched his shoulder briefly, smiled, and walked away to another shell-shocked person standing by the counter.

Alec realised this was probably the last act of kindness he would see on this Earth.

Because it was obvious what he'd been sent out for. He was the sheep being offered for the sacrifice, the expendable part of the master plan, the Plan Z of the operation. How he was supposed to save the day, he was not sure. But the last thing he remembered was Magnus swinging a hand towards him. Magnus. _Magnus._

Something reached down Alec's throat and took hold of his heart with icy fingers, and began ripping at it.

The pain. Oh, the pain.

He stood up, legs oddly steady, and walked onto the street.

Rain soaked into him. He'd read somewhere rain were the tears of God. As if He gave a fuck about what was happening. Alec didn't bother finding an alleyway – he just found a more deserted wall of a building and slid down it, knees drawn up his chest, and the only tears running down his face were those of God, and not his own.

Alec felt something stir in the air. He was the prey, sensing the predator. Only, in this case, the prey was past caring what happened to it. He stood up, and raised his head to the sky. There was something beautiful about each individual drop of water falling onto his skin, sinking into his clothes. Something magical. Maybe that was how everything seemed, for the last time. Magical.

Alec could not describe the pain inside him, and never would be able to. How could you explain pain to someone who is never going to experience the same thing? It was easier to say nothing. Alec could hardly feel himself breathing. The hand around his heart was killing him, slowly, slowly, slowly. It was like an illness that nobody would be able to see until it was too late, until he dropped dead. Because it was so bad that his body had numbed itself against it, cut off his nerve endings so as to ignore the problem, which was what we all do when we can't fix something.

Alec wondered if this would kill him before Abaddon caught him.

He began to walk. There was a place he wanted to be, if he was to die.

Central Park. Deserted, strangely, like a ghost village. Alec felt like a ghost himself, drifting only the paths, leaves hardly stirring underfoot. He didn't know why he was walking through here, disturbing old memories, reliving old emotions. Maybe to see if he could still feel something, anything, through the cold fog in his mind. He saw things through his eyes, but in a detached sort of way. Like a doctor examining a patient, a scientist reporting on a lab animal. Yes, that was it.

Alec brushed his fingers only a bench that stood next a lamppost, both dripping wet. This was where Magnus had been sitting when they had met up, that first time, in the Park. He'd sat next to him, awkward, self-conscious. Alec almost smiled. To think of it now.

He walked on, to a tree that stood taller than the rest, its leaves greener, its trunk thicker. The letters MB and AL were etched into the bark. This was where they had first kissed, in the Park.

Nothing. He felt nothing. It would have been frightening. But Alec felt nothing.

He kept walking, over the bridge stretching across the water, over the grass. He began to walk up the slight hill. The smell of wet grass was clear around him. Magical. That counted as feeling something, didn't it? But no, Alec was past telling lies to himself as well. There was a difference between feeling something and taking note of it. A big difference.

He stood, at the top of the hill, looking down at the empty expanse of park in front of him, utterly, utterly alone. He waited. Rain drops. Grass. Memories dancing all around him, just out of reach. He couldn't see them, and they couldn't see him. Utterly, utterly alone.

The world got darker. Ink across the sky. The rain began to sting. A wind flattened the grass, swept the memories away.

Abaddon appeared, right behind Alec's shoulder.

"Come a bit early, haven't you?" the fallen angel said. Alec did not turn around.

"I know every trick in the book, so you're not going to pull anything off," Abaddon continued. Alec turned around.

"Just hurry it up, will you?" he said. His voice sounded calm, collected. Not trembling at all.

Abaddon was calculating, Alec could tell. Calculating for or against. For, or against.

Something flicked in his mind a second before Abaddon made his decision. A memory stirred. Years before, Magnus had gone through a poem phase, reading them, writing his own, reciting them. And Alec remembered one, out of all the hundreds, Alec remembered one.

Something strange happened.

Abaddon made his decision.

Alec saw his last moments coming. Words flashed in his mind.

_Out of the night that covers me, _

Abaddon changed. His human form was changing, rippling, acid death filling the air like smoke.

_Black as the Pit from pole to pole, _

Bloody colours swirled inside the demon, shapes that were giving Abaddon power, being tortured beyond belief.

_I thank whatever gods may be _

Alec saw Abaddon's hand reach towards him and realized that this was it, the defining moment, the climax of all his struggles. He finished the poem.

_For my unconquerable soul…_

**Okay, bear with me guys, bear with me. Oh yeah, the poem is the first stanza from Invictus by William Henley (the movie is great, by the way). I think my writing style changed in this chapter, but that's probably due to the crap that's called my life right now. At least it helped me right weird angst, right? So please, please review and give me your thoughts on the ending. I seriously, **_**seriously**_** don't want to wreck the story.**

**Thanks for reading, as always. I love you all.**


	13. They call this The End

**Yes, I had a pen name change and yes I updated my previous chapters etc. SO nervous about the end…**

**Disclaimer: Last one for Demon Deadlines! **

There is nothing quite the same as a Fallen Angel dying. Many people forget, but they were angels once too, and everything that came with it.

There was a quiet sigh, the last breath of a heavenly creature.

Everything within a ten metre radius quietly died with it, like a wave of death sweeping across the grass. Animals scurried away, but the ones not fast enough, or under the ground, didn't have a chance.

A quiet sigh. A last breath. Alec opened his eyes.

* * *

Azrael, Magnus, Isabelle, Jace, Clary, Simon and Maia had all been there, waiting, watching, as soon as Alec had reached the park.

Now they were running.

There was no time to think. The dead grass was still wet with rain, their feet slipping, held breaths clashing with the need to inhale.

Finally, they could see Alec, lying still, pale, crumpled on the ground. Everybody stood still in a silent circle around him.

Magnus crouched down next to Alec and put a hand against his cheek. It was cold, so, so cold. Magnus felt the coldness seeping through his heart like a virus.

And then, suddenly, Alec pounced. His eyes snapped open, a mad, demented blue and he launched himself at Magnus, both of them crashing into the ground and down the hill, suddenly, they could see Alec's Marks twisting and writhing against his skin, crawling like snakes up his face, sinking into his eyes, blackness filling up the whites -

Alec drew his arm back and punched Magnus viciously across the face, knees pinning him down, a cruel smile twisting his face. Somebody was screaming – Isabelle – Alec wrapped his hands around Magnus' head and slammed it into the ground, over and over –

"Do something!" Jace yelled, jumping forward, grabbing Alec around the torso and trying to wrench him off Magnus. Alec didn't even turn. His foot snapped back, Jace cried out, Alec rammed an elbow into his face, his momentum bringing his fist to crunch sickeningly back into Magnus face.

Magnus did nothing.

He could taste blood in his mouth, but he did nothing. As Alec drew back his arm again, Magnus stared up at the him, now a Forsaken, in front of him and thought _So be it. Alec is gone. I have nothing else to live for. _

He closed his eyes as his head was smashed to the side, the bones in his neck cracking, his nose breaking. A rib shattered, warm, wet blood seeped into the soil around him, his eyelids grew darker…

"Oh God –" Something gold cracked the air and wrapped around Alec's wrist. Isabelle jerked her whip, forcing Alec off Magnus. Alec snarled and turned on her, but Simon was there, and now it was vampire against Forsaken, Alec lashed out, Simon ducked and tackled him, there was a blur of limbs and inhuman sounds, Maia was shaking Magnus, begging him just to open his eyes –

"Enough!"

Azrael flared his wings, and suddenly he was huge, sunlight framed his dark features, his eyes glowing. He reached down, and somehow he was taller than all of them, but still the same – he wrenched Alec away from Simon, who fell back, panting, clutching his side.

Alec became very still. Azrael, somehow on eye level with him, had both his hands on Alec's shoulders, staring at him, his lips moving in a soundless prayer. Jace could lip read and he knew what the Angel was saying.

_Yea,_ _though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil…_

And then he passed through Alec. It was like he was only dust, and the wind had picked him up. He reappeared on the other side of Alec, and he no longer had that aura around him that marked him out, he was no longer shining, but Alec – Alec was…

Magnus still did not open his eyes.

Alec turned, a look of confusion on his face, and they saw what was happening to him, his runes were sliding back into their normal positions, the blackness was seeping from his eyes, revealing his oh so familiar blue ones, he saw Azrael, who smiled, a tired, but happy, smile.

"Welcome back, Alec," the Angel said, and slowly, his entire body sifted into ashes. A breeze picked up, sweeping up the dust. They raised their heads to watch, but this time, Azrael did not reappear.

It had been raining, but the clouds had thinned, and were losing the gray. Above them, a single shaft of sunlight penetrated through and poured into the clearing, illuminating Alec as he tipped his head back, dark hair falling back.

Two, huge, magnificent black wings unfolded themselves from his back and stretched out, basking in the sunlight.

Isabelle reached out a hand and touched the tip of one wing. It was real alright.

Alec turned to her, saw she was bleeding across one cheek, and looked in horror at the rest of them: Jace, bruised, clothes torn, Clary with a split lip, Simon, still holding his ribs, and Maia, standing next to a figure still lying on the ground, blood all over her hands.

"What – oh my God –" He whirled, staring at all of them, realization flashing across his face, unable to say anything, to apologise, and then…

"Magnus!" Alec flung himself down next to the warlock, his wings folding back in, brushing the grass, flashing back to that night seven years ago, oh how history repeated itself… "Oh God, please, _Magnus_…" Alec pulled him up slightly, cradling his head in his arms, tears of remorse and shame falling onto Magnus' bloodied features. "Magnus, can you hear me? Magnus, open your eyes, please, Magnus, _please_," his voice broke, he was shaking so hard he could hardly breathe, and still, Magnus' head just lolled to the side, limp. "No." Alec wiped away the blood on one cheek. "No, no, no." He tangled his fingers in Magnus' hair, holding on to him as if it would keep him here, how could he not be, _how could he not be?_ He could here muffled crying behind him, but they were wrong, wrong,_ wrong_, they had to be, they had to be -

Alec slapped Magnus hard across the face.

"Jesus!" Magnus spat blood into Alec's face, then onto the grass, his magic automatically dancing across him, healing him, Alec felt something click into place under his hands, Magnus winced, dried blood cracking, and then it finally sunk in, Magnus was alive, he was _alive!_

"You little – I thought you were –"

Alec wrapped his arms around him and hugged him hard, squeezing the breath out of him, and, instinctively, his wings stretched out around him too, enveloping them both in a dark, feathery protective circle. Magnus eyes widened.

"Whoa, where did you get those? Where's Azrael? What the hell did I miss?"

Alec would find out later that Magnus had never betrayed him, had not told anybody else of Azrael's plan in case Abaddon captured them. Absorbing a soul was different from killing someone. Abaddon would have access to every one of his memories, and would have discovered the plan if Alec had known.

But right now he didn't care, he was just here, with Magnus, they were both alive, together, and that was all that mattered right now.

Until.

"You know what this means, huh?" Jace said, sitting down next to them. Alec looked over at the top of his wings that rose above his head. They really were enormous, but it did have to carry him, after all.

"Yeah."

"Had any Godly voices inside your head? Any miracles you want to perform?"

"I think there have been plenty of miracles already," Magnus said, who was lying back in the sun, a constant little smile on his face.

Jace looked down at him, and Alec saw a sadness in his step-brother's eyes.

"Anybody up for a coffee?" Alec said, standing up. "I'm dying for some caffiene."

* * *

Alec savoured every single experience, from his feet against the grass, to the leather of the car, to the smooth door handle of Magnus' apartment.

He'd said his last goodbyes at the Institute, walking the hallowed halls for the last time. All the Angels and Saints had gone, and the place was empty again, like it had always had been. He didn't have much stuff left in the Institute, his meagre wardrobe and other possessions were at Magnus' place.

Clary stood in the door way as Alec took a last look around his bedroom. Alec had grown to like Clary over the years, they'd fought together, worried about Jace and Isabelle together, and Clary made Jace happy, which was all that mattered.

"I…" Clary started, looking down at the floor. "I never had a chance to thank Azrael before he went. We all hated him, at the end, when we thought…" she took a breath. "Anyway. You'll be able to come back and visit right? Do you think they'll let you do that, you know, up there?"

Alec smiled and ruffled his wings.

"Of course I'll come back. You'll look after Jace and Izzy for me in the meantime, won't you?"

"Leave me the hard task, then," Clary said, smiling, but her smile was wavering slightly, and her eyes were shining with tears.

"Oh c'mon, Clary," Alec said, sweeping her into a hug. "What is Izzy going to be like if you're like this?"

"Shut… up," Clary said, face buried in his chest, ever the midget. "She's in the kitchen. Wants to talk to you."

Alec shouldered his bag which settled beneath one wing and squeezed Clary's hand.

"See you later, then."

"Yeah. Bye. Have fun."

Isabelle was indeed in the kitchen, and the place was flooded. As in, literally, flooded.

"Izzy – the tap –" Alec darted over and turned off the cold water, feet sending up a spray of water. Isabelle seemed to come back to life.

"Oh, what, sorry, damn it this place is soaked, sorry –" she turned away from Alec and sloshed over to a dry part of the kitchen.

"Isabelle," Alec said, sloshing after her. "Isabelle, come here,"

Alec had never realized hugs could communicate so much. He could see their reflections in various shiny surfaces, the Lightwood siblings, so alike. Alec could just make out Isabelle's muffled words against him.

"Damn it… this is unfair… leaving me… last of the Lightwoods, you know… Max… now you have to go –"

Alec pulled back, her words sinking in the truth. He had to go. He hugged her again, just as they heard Jace's voice say

"Hey, hey. No last minute incest, okay?"

"Shut up, asshole," Isabelle said, wiping her eyes.

"Geez, just doing my job," Jace said, jangling car keys.

"You're driving me?"

"No, but Simon is."

The drive to Brooklyn went abnormally fast, Alec trying to memorize each building, each person, the design of the bridge, the colour of the river.

And then, they were in front of Magnus' apartment.

"I'll stay in the car," said Simon.

"Thanks for the ride," Alec said, opening the door. "Say good bye to Maia for me. See you later, mundane-blood sucker-Simon."

"Wow. Don't I feel special," Simon said, but he grinned at Alec, showing his fangs. "Bye."

Alec stopped at the steps of the apartment and turned to Jace. The two of them were the same height, one blond, one dark-haired, yet with the same lithe, thin build, the same walk, the same build. They fought seamlessly with each other, had protected each other for as long as they could remember, best friends, _parabatai_, brothers.

"Well." Jace said, "since the girls shed enough tears, how about a manly hug? Sound good?"

"Sounds good."

They clasped hands and thumped each other on the back, but then Jace said

"Stuff this,"

and hugged him properly, still two awkward males unable to put eloquent sentences together.

"Don't want to see you too soon now do I?" Jace said. "It'll mean I'm dead, right?"

"You just can't wait to get rid of me,"

"How did you guess?" Jace grinned and turned back towards the car. Alec turned towards the door. "See you later, Alec." Jace got in the car and wound down the window. "And don't catch any STDs before you go!"

Alec turned around, indignant, but Simon had already cracked up and driven away.

Alec took a deep breath and walked in.

Magnus turned out to be on the roof, the wind, still slightly laced with smoke, blowing back his hair, pressing his plain white shirt against his skin. Alec climbed the last of the steps into the sunlight, shut the door quietly behind him and walked across the flat concrete to join Magnus by the edge.

"I always wished I could fly," Magnus said, quietly.

"I wish I can't, now," Alec said.

Magnus turned to look at him, his cat eyes burning into him.

"It's like a curse," he said, suddenly fierce.

"What?" Alec said, confused.

"I'm immortal, and somehow I'm always destined to be alone. Anything – anyone – I care for just dies, or pisses off somewhere –" Magnus shook his head, turning away from Alec.

"Magnus –" Alec reached out for his shoulder, but Magnus started striding away from him, back towards the exit.

"If you're going, then hurry up with it. Go on, just fly off –"

"Magnus! Stop it!" Alec strode after him.

"Stop what? Trying to get away from you? I just want to –"

Alec grasped Magnus by the shoulders, spun him around, blue eyes against green, and then Magnus seemed to lose it, suddenly he was clinging to him, shoulders shaking, saying

"Jesus Christ, Alec, why the hell do you have to go, why, fuck, _why?_"

"I don't know, I don't know," Alec said, holding Magnus against him, tears pooling in his own eyes. "I honestly don't know…"

He didn't know how long they stood there, lost in each other. But there was a feeling in him that told him to fly, fly.

"I have to go," he whispered into Magnus' hair. "I have to go."

They walked over to the edge, hands still bound tightly together, fingers fitting like they were moulded together.

Alec climbed onto the concrete barrier that ran around the top of the building. His wings spread slightly against the wind, making him look like a huge, beautiful bird of prey. He crouched and pivoted on the narrow ledge, still on eye level with Magnus.

"You know something?" he said, putting a finger under Magnus' chin and tipping his head up.

"What?" Magnus said.

"I love you," Alec said, and kissed him. He nearly fell off the ledge from lack of air but it felt good, too good.

"I'll be back," Alec said, softly, and then he twisted off the edge of the building.

He dropped like a stone, sickeningly fast, and then, suddenly, he snapped his wings out, impossibly wide, catching the air currents, and he was flying up, up, wings beating in a rhythmic _thud, _carrying him into the sky.

It was a blinding sight. For a moment, Magnus opened his eyes against the sun, and Alec paused in flight, surrounded by golden light, to look back at him.

And then Magnus had to blink, and when he looked back…

Alec was gone.

* * *

The End.

* * *

**.God. It's actually finished! Did I drag it out too much? I thought it needed it, at the end…**

**BUT FIRST: I need to thank two very special people Caroline and Veronica for helping me come up with the ending (especially the hill scene), and for helping me refine the details. Hope you liked it.**

**Secondly, thank you to all who have added this/me to their favourite stories/authors list, and to all who subscribed. I loved getting those alerts.**

**But of course, the biggest thank you goes to all reviewers, especially the ones who have continuously reviewed my chapters. We all know how much reviews mean to an author, so no need to dwell on it. Just know that you have all my love and appreciation, and I hope I will continue to write good fics for you to review.**

**So there you have it. The end of my first fanfiction, Demon Deadlines.**

**Review for me, one last time?

* * *

**

**Okay, so here's the Demon Deadlines Soundtrack. I'm not sure if you're even supposed to do it like this but whatever, it took me absolutely ages, but it was worth it. Please check it out, there are some pretty awesome songs on there, but I've put up the lyrics I think suit the most (unless otherwise stated). Can't believe you guys have got this far, but anyway, ENJOY! Love you all.**

_**Always running out of time**_ by **Motion City Soundtrack** (Thanks to Duck life) 

_The faster I go/ The further away it seems we get/ From floating our way out… Always running out of time/ always running out of time…_

_**Where's my Angel **_by**Metro Station **(Thanks to Duck life again) 

_Where's my angel?/ Go on and take my life/ Where's my angel?/ I need someone here tonight…_

_**Airplanes **_by **B.O.B ft Hayley Williams from Paramore **(Not the rapping, though… Thanks to Duck Life yet again – Thanks for all the support!)

_Can we pretend that airplanes/ in the night sky/ Are like shooting stars/ I could really use a wish right now…_

_**Beast of Blood **_by **Malice Mizer **(Thanks to Mademise Morte – by the way, could you provide a translation for your other ficmix suggestion? Thanks! )

_Place of silence, moving shadows/ Crimson eyes are strangely gleaming in the darkness/ Madness starting to awake/ Playful desire starving of blood/ Get down limitless night…_

_**The Hill**_by**Markèta Irglova** (For Chapter 12 – Alec: Last Moments. Perfect for the mood). 

_Walking up the hill tonight…/ Where are you my angel now?/ Don't you see me crying?/ And I know that you can't do it all/ But you can't say I'm not trying…_

_**Into the Nothing **_by **Breaking Benjamin **(A lot of the words fit, by the way)

_Into the nothing/ Faded and weary/ I won't leave and let you fall behind/ Live for the dying/ Heaven hear me/ I know we can make it out alive… _

_**Send me an Angel **_by **Real Life**

_Don't know what to do/ don't know what to do/ you're looking for love calling heaven above/ Send me an angel/ send me an angel…_

_**Can't go back now **_by **The Weepies **(Really suits the fic's mood, love it!)

_You and me walk on, walk on, walk on/ 'Cause you can't go back now…_

_**Shattered **_by **Trading Yesterday **(Again, more words fit)

_Yesterday I died/ tomorrow's bleeding/ Fall into your sunlight/ The future's open wide beyond believing/ To know why hope dies…_

_**Still Here **_by **Kristen Valen **(Chapter 4 –Demons Time You) 

_Close your eyes/ I'll stay beside you/ I'm still here /I won't let them find you/ I'll be laying right here by your side/ Even though my heart is breaking /Seeing you like this I'll face it/ Don't be afraid/ You're not alone…_

_**Ameno **_by **Era **(It's like a Latin Hymn but with rock, and could be possible soundtracky type music for the right scenes. Sounds awesomely scary, and the translation actually fits the story!)

_Dori me/ Interimo/ Ayapare/ Dorime/ __Ameno/ Ameno…_

_**Mercy on Me **_by **Christina Aguilera **

_Lord have mercy on my soul/ For I have walked the sinful road/ Now I'm down on my knees/ Lord have mercy on me, please…_

_**The Wings – **_**Theme from the movie 'Brokeback Mountain' **by **Gustavo Santaolalla**

_You give me the wings to fly/ You are the clear blue sky/ I'm floating so free, so high/ Falling with grace, for you, am I…_

Just a song to represent the Malec-ness I didn't have enough off…

_**Whataya want from me **_by **Adam Lambert **(Magnus' P.O.V. towards Azrael and Alec) The entire song actually fits, just put it into context

_Just don't give up I'm working it out/ Please don't give in, I won't let you down/ It messed me up, need a second to breathe/ Just keep coming around/ Hey, whataya want from me…_

_**Time for Miracles **_**from the movie '2012' **by **Adam Lambert **(Magus' P.O.V.)

_Baby you know that/ Maybe it's time for miracles/ 'Cause I ain't giving up on love…/ No I ain't giving up on us…_

_**If I Can't Have You **_by **Yvonne Elliman (sung by Adam Lambert, preferably) **(Magnus' P.O.V. at the very end)

_Don't know why I'm surviving every lonely day/ When there's got to be no chance for me/ My life would end and it doesn't matter how I cry/ My tears of love are a waste of time/ If I turn away, am I strong enough to see it through?/ Go crazy is what I will do  
If I can't have you, I don't want nobody…_

**Off to continue my next fic: Coffee, Cream and Celebrities… **


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